1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to telephones and more particularly to a method and system for remotely and automatically activating a profile of a telephone.
2. Related Art
In this modern world telephones provide a user with the ability to communicate with others almost anywhere in the world. Telephones include both landline telephones and mobile telephones (such as cellular telephones). Mobile telephones, which are becoming increasingly popular and ubiquitous communication devices, provide mobile two-way communication using a duplex radio that acts like a regular telephone. Most types of telephones have several functions and support many different types of features including three-way calling, conference calling, call waiting, call forwarding and voice mail.
One popular and useful feature for telephones is telephone profiles. Generally, a telephone profile is a collection of telephone functions and features that allows a user to control the behavior of their telephone. Thus, a user can generate a telephone profile by selecting from available telephone functions and features and associating those desired functions and features with the profile. By way of example, a user may define a meeting profile that uses the voice mail feature and a vibration function. When the meeting profile is activated (such as when the user is in a meeting) the user is notified of a high-priority incoming calls (as predetermined by the user) by the vibration of the telephone, while all other incoming calls are sent to voice mail. Several other telephone profiles that determine the behavior of the telephone during certain events may be defined by the user, including, for example, a vacation profile (whereby all incoming calls are sent to voice mail), a travelling profile (whereby incoming calls are forwarded to another telephone number) and a normal profile (whereby all incoming calls are received). The following profiles are merely example, and of course these telephone profiles may be uniquely defined and titled by each individual user based on available telephone functions and features. In addition, many telephones require that a prefix be dialed when the telephone is outside of a certain area, and the telephone can include a prefix function that enables the prefix (such as an area code) to automatically be included whenever a number is dialed.
A major problem (and inconvenience) with current telephones, however, is that to activate telephone profiles the user is required to manually intervene and select a desired profile. This means that the user must remember to deactivate a certain profile when it is no longer being used and to activate a more appropriate profile for the current situation. Unfortunately, this requires the user to keep track of which profile is currently active and remember to manually deactivate a profile and manually activate another more desirable profile when circumstances change. Because of the constant manual intervention required to keep the telephone profiles updated, the use can easily forget to activate the correct telephone profile suitable for the particular occasion.
Many telephones (particularly mobile telephones) are also small in size and accordingly have small keys with which to enter information. Due to the small size of the keys, a user can easily incorrectly enter profile information into the telephone. This may result in the user""s telephone ringing at an inopportune time or a call being missed because the incorrect profile was active. For example, if the user is in a meeting and forgets to activate a meeting profile (that is predefined to send all incoming calls to voice mail), then an unimportant incoming call will cause the telephone to ring during the meeting. On the other hand, if the meeting is over but the user forgets to manually switch profiles from meeting profile to normal profile, then an important call may be missed. The high level of manual intervention, high potential for errors and effort required to ensure that the proper profile is activated can be quite frustrating, inconvenient and time-consuming for the user.
In addition to keeping the correct profile activated on his telephone, a user is often also using a calendar application to schedule events. In fact, a user will typically use his calendar application to schedule upcoming events for a time period (such as for an hour, a day or an entire week) and then manually activate a telephone profile before each event that is appropriate for the event. The calendar application may reside on, for example, a desktop computer, a notebook computer a personal digital assistant (PDA) or on the equipment of an online service provider. In general, calendar applications are organizational tools that enable the user to record and schedule events (such as appointments, meetings, dates, important tasks and lists). The user who is using both a calendar application and telephone profiles must enter an event (such as an meeting) twice: once in the calendar application and once on the telephone (to associate a profile with the event). This requires at least two manual interventions and results in a duplication of effort, a great waste of time, user frustration and a greater decrease in the efficiency of the user.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system that avoids unnecessary duplication of effort by allowing remote activation of a telephone profile. In addition, the method and system would allow a user to automatically select, based on a user""s predetermined settings within a calendar-based application, the proper telephone profile for the particular occasion. Activation of the telephone could be accomplished by any remote communications means, for example, using a modem contained on the processing device where the calendar application resides, e-mail, telephone voice mail, digital messaging or a voice-response system. Whatever the merits of the above-mentioned systems and methods, they do not achieve the benefits of the present invention.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art as described above and other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention includes a method and system for remotely activating a profile of a telephone. In general, the present invention includes having a user input telephone profile activation information, transmitting the information to the telephone and automatically activating a desired telephone profile corresponding to an event based on the telephone profile activation information. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention includes a calendar application to receive and manage calendar information, associating a suitable telephone profile with the calendar information, transmitting these profile associations to the telephone and activating the desired profile at an appropriate time. After an event has expired (either due to cancellation or completion), a subsequent profile may be activated. In addition, an alternate embodiment of the present invention includes providing a means for the user to update profile and calendar information on the telephone and having that information transmitted to a remote profile activator (such as a calendar application).
The present invention avoids duplication of user effort by having the user schedule events on the remote profile activator (such as a calendar application residing on a computer) and having the remote profile activator automatically activate a predetermined telephone profile associated with an event on the telephone. Automatic activation of the telephone profile can be accomplished by any remote communications means, such as using a modem contained on the processing device where a calendar application resides, e-mail, telephone voice mail, digital messaging or a voice-response system. Because the user has predefined telephone profiles for certain types of events, the user only enters telephone profile activation information once in the remote profile activator and the application automatically will associate a suitable telephone profile to the event based on the user""s preferences. Not only is duplication of effort eliminated, but the user no longer must remember to activate a suitable profile at several times during the day, thus eliminating user error and frustration and saving a great deal of time. In addition, the preset invention is capable of working in different time zones by converting the calendar information into the current time zone of the telephone. Thus, activation of telephone profiles is performed automatically and without the need for the user to constantly correlate an event with a telephone profile and manually activate the profile prior to each event.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention as well as a more complete understanding thereof will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention. Moreover, it is intended that the scope of the invention be limited by the claims and not by the preceding summary or the following detailed description.